14A 



but none of them have been exactly meek. It is not the expert's 

 business to be meek. In fact, he is paid not to be meek, but to 

 know the value of his own opinion. 



" We have many experts in many branches lof literature 

 and science at Cambridge, but we aU Jive together in very tolerable 

 amity. We respect each other, we even like each other, though 

 often strangely ignorant of each other's stock-in-trade. You 

 will remember what a shock it was to the great Prime Minister 

 Canning when he was told that the tadpoles which he saw 

 •swarming in a pool on Hampstead Heath were frogs, only in an 

 earlier stage. He refused to beheve it. He said it contradicted 

 the evidence of his senses. The great Greek Professor Kennedy, 

 who rose at a very early hour of the morning to pursue his studies, 

 was told by his doctor that he must take an early cup of tea; 

 and his daughters installed a gas-ring in his dressing-room. The 

 following morning they were aroused at some imtimely hour by 

 the cries of the Professor. ' This arrangement of yours is an 

 entire failure. It does not heat my tea. I have turned the tap 

 twenty times, and all that results is a strange hissing sound and 

 an intolerable smell.' 



" We students of literature do not, however, enjoy haK the 

 credit and respect enjoyed by the men of science. We end our 

 days as a book or two on a dusty shelf. Meanwhile we see 

 science girdling the earth with unseen voices, propelling humanity 

 along the roads far more rapidly than it is safe to travel, and 

 enriching the breakfast-table of the humblest human being with 

 food that is increasingly cheap and wholesome. 



" Even in literature itself we feel the influence of the hand 

 of science. I was reading the other day the works of Tennyson 

 and came upon the well-known lines :— 



' And all can raise the flower now. 

 For all have got the seed.' 



" I read, and a dark suspicion came over me. ' Yes, no 

 doiibt,' I said, 'but was it properly tested seed?' I fear not. 

 I fear that we must continue to think that the men of whom 

 Tennyson speaks had to be content with an inferior article. 

 How different it would be now, when the seed would have been 

 properly tested and certified, owing to the wise forethought and 

 beneficial labours of those whom we welcome here to-day ! 



" Gentlemen, I offer to you a hearty welcome here to-day 

 in the name of the College. I wish that more of our staff had 

 been able to be present, but even literary experts must take a 

 holiday sometimes, however easily earned. We will, however, 

 give ourselves the pleasure of drinking the health of our guests, 

 and invoking a blessing on their labours ; and I wiU join with this 

 the name of my friend and colleague, Sir Lawrence Weaver, 

 whom, with Lady Weaver, we are proud to entertain here to-day." 



